One Colour Red
From Ikon
A gathering based upon a 'dissolving' art instillation which Ikon was commissioned to create by the Waterfront Hall, Belfast. The art piece was made up of 50 small red squares, each inspired by the theme of religious diversity. These squares were reprinted thousands of times and scattered throughout the building for people to collect and take home.
Photos taken by Jonny Baker
Limited edition poster
If you would like to get your hands on one (and there are any left) contact here
Opening Reflections
It is said that Christ once, when describing, the movement of love which he was instigating, bent down and picked up a seed that was liying on the top soil. The story goes that he held this tiny mustard seed in the air, so that his friends could see it, and said the following words, ‘the kingdom of God is like a tiny mustard seed, planted in the soil of the world. This seed went on to grow into a great tree which provided a nest for the birds of the air.
The traditional reading of this parable reads it as a means of Christ saying that this little movement of love would one grow into a massive movement that would provide safety and shelter for the world. Yet there is another possible interpretation, one which remembers that birds are sometimes seen as harbingers of evil in the scriptures (stealing the seed of God from the ground). In this reading Jesus is viewed as saying that this wonderful way of love which he teaching will grow into a huge institution which will house great evil.
In the first interpretation Christ is seen as the willing founder of a new religion, while in the latter Christ is portrayed as one who rejects all religion. So which interpretation is accurate? Perhaps neither one nor the other, but rather both.
I discovered a beautiful representation of this little considered perspective while on a trip to Geneva recently. During my wanderings around the city I was amazed at what I found in the old town square. As a stood there to one side was the great Cathedral of St. Peter while on the other side there was a formidable statue of Jeremiah turning away in shame and disgust from it. As I stood there I wondered which side I should embrace? Which side represents the Christian path? As I stood there I wondered to myself whether perhaps standing between these two images, between the Church and Jeremiah, is where we must locate ourselves… sometimes visiting one and sometimes the other but all the time acknowledging them both.
Incredibly it is this double act of embracing Christianity and rejecting it that lies at the heart of Christianity itself. Those of us attempting to become Christians (and that includes most of us) can embrace the great words of Augustine when he spoke of the wonderful liberation of knowing that before God we are always in the wrong (a theme we have explored many times together).
And so, far from being a strange thing that a group like ourselves is asked to do an installation on difference, it makes perfect sense, for by embracing the Christian insight that we must be critical of Christianity (and any religious system) allows us to genuinely sit and engage with a whole host of wisdom traditions and faith traditions.
So much religion is about eating the other – taking them and metaphorically consuming their difference in an attempt to make them in a clone of the self. The other side of this is what Levi-Strauss called ‘vomiting out’ the other. Here we metaphorically push that which is different away from us in an instinctual hatred similar to the involuntrary gaging that comes to us before being sick.
At Ikon we do not want to eat others or vomit them out, but rather eat with others, listening, learning and sharing. For we all share one sacred colour, and that colour is blood.
Welcome to Ikon.
Sample of Reflections used
Walking with the devil
It is said that the devil used to walk late in the evening through the world with his friends. Once, during one of these midnight strolls, a demon who was walking with him happened to see a young woman who was bending down to pick up a fragment of truth. The demon shifted uneasily, expecting Lucifer to fly into a terrific rage, but instead he seemed unperturbed. Later the demon plucked up some courage and asked the devil why he was so unconcerned by the woman’s discovery of truth. ‘Why should I care’ replied the devil, ‘for in just a little while I shall make a theology of it
Friend of God
There is an ancient legend, which tells us of old fishing village on the outskirts of a prosperous city. Now the story goes that every few weeks a gang of youths would travel up to this tiny village from the capital and terrorise the locals.
The village elders where powerless to stop these attacks, for the leader of the gang happened to be the son of an important and well-respected official.
Not sure what to do they eventually decided to seek counsel from the village Rabbi, who was so moved by the peoples concern that he decided to take matters into his own hands.
Late that evening the Rabbi called on the leader of the gang and told him that if he didn’t change his ways he would personally inform his father of what had been going on.
But this didn’t faze the young man at all, he simply laughed and replied that as an only child and his father allowed him to live as he pleased.
'Well then’, replied the Rabbi ‘I shall pray to the LORD, for He stands in judgement over us all, and he will strike forth in vengeance’.
But again the youth laughed,
‘Why should I fear your God, from your own lips you have said he always forgives, and anyway I have no care for the gods, let them do as they will’.
As you would expect the Rabbi left that place with a heavy heart.
Well months passed and things just grew worse. The village elders again approached the Great Rabbi who, this times, decided to take action.
The next day he approached the leaders house with anger in his heart and knocked on the door. But as he waited he heard a voice from heaven declare,
'Do not dare to touch my friend, for he lives under my protection'.
By the time the youth opened the door the Rabbi was utterly speechless.
'What is it this time old man’ said the young troublemaker
But the Rabbi, dejected and confused, simply turned and walked away, repeating what had just happened over his shoulder.
The young man paused and then replied, 'Did he call me “friend”', but by this time the Rabbi was too far away to hear.
Well about 18 years later, by chance, the Rabbi met this troublemaker while on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. It turns out the youth had been so moved by the Rabbi’s words he had given everything he possessed to the poor and become a desert pilgrim.
When he saw the Rabbi he ran up and embraced his feet.
'I have come all this way to seek out my friend' he whispered through tears.
Shortly after, he died.
I am your Lord
On September 25th 1941, after all the Jews of Eiskysky and the nearby towns had been rounded up, the 4000 captives where lead to the horse market. In groups of 250 they where taken to the old Jewish cemetery and ordered undress in front of a line of open ditches (all undertaken under the watch and encouragement of local people).
The leader of the executions, Ostrovakas, dressed in a white apron and gloves, personally supervised the killing, reserving the right to murder town nobles and practice sharp shooting on the children.
On that dark day Michalowsky and his 16-year-old son Zvi stood shivering before the open graves. Zvi spent those moments counting the bullets and the amount of time that elapsed between each volley of fire. This meant that a split second before the shots ripped into him, he was able to go limp and fall into the ditch.
He waited for what seemed an eternity as more bodies piled on top of him. He struggled for breathe among the corpses, gagging on the river of blood and smell of dead flesh.
Very early on the 26th September, in the dead of night, he struggled from the grave all the time listening to the festivities that where still going on in the distance. It seemed that most of the village was out singing, laughing and rejoicing at the massacre.
At the far end of the cemetery, near a huge church Zvi knew of some Christian families and so he approached them still naked and covered in blood.
He knocked on the first door. After a few moments the door opened and a peasant woman who he knew, holding a lamp, looked out. Zvi recognised that the lamp was Jewish and had been pillaged from the empty homes of his community. He pleaded with the woman saying, ‘Please let me in’. But she only shook her fist and said, ‘Go back to the grave where you belong Jew’.
Zvi tried some other houses but the response was the same.
Finally he decided to visit a Christian widow, who lived at the edge of the village near a forest. The old woman answered the door to Zvi holding a small piece of burning wood. ‘Please let me in’ he begged, but the woman raised the stick and waved it at him wildly, as if warding away a demon, saying, ‘you belong in the cemetery Jew’.
But Zvi stood firm and replied, ‘Do you not recognise me, I am your Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, I have come down from the cross to visit you. Look at my blood, my suffering, my innocence, do not disown me’.
The widow dropped onto her knees and crossed herself before kissing his blood stained feet. All she could say was ‘my God, my God’, as she lead him into the house.
He stayed there for three days and three nights before finally setting out. He made her promise to tell no one about his visit, not even the Priest. Before he left she provided him with warm food, fresh clothes and cold water for the journey.
